Democrats Smartly Back Off Healthcare Benefits Tax

By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street

Senate Democrats have apparently put their fingers to the wind and wisely decided to step back from proposals to tax middle-class taxpayers' health insurance plans to help pay for healthcare reform. That ill-conceived notion has drawn boos from voters and nonvoting Americans. Senate Democratic leaders are finally reading the poll numbers. Yesterday, according to the Associated Press, they told reporters off the record that the idea is now history.

One lawmaker deeply involved in bipartisan negotiations in the Senate said there were second thoughts about a proposed tax on the costliest employer-paid insurance benefits. "It's clearly a very difficult issue. ... You go to the public to ask them what they think, and they don't like it," said Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., referring to recent polling.

Sometimes the public is wrong and strong leadership is called for to push through unpopular legislation. This is not one of those cases. President Obama campaigned on a pledge not to raise taxes. Taxing some healthcare benefits is a back-door way of raising taxes and doing so would turn him into a bona fide prevaricator.

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